Reflection and Refraction - Bending Light (Remote Lab)
This lesson is designed for a student working remotely .)
This lab uses the Bending Light simulation from PhET Interactive Simulations at University of
Colorado Boulder, under the CC-BY 4.0 license.
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/bending-light/latest/bending-light_en.html
Learning Goals
A. Describe what happens to light when it shines on a medium.
B. Explain light direction changes at the interface between two media and what determines the angle.
C. Describe the effect of varying wavelength on the angle of refraction.
D. Explain why a prism creates a rainbow.
E. Apply Snell’s law to a laser beam incident on the interface between media.
Everyday Physics in your life:
I put a chopstick in a glass of water like in the picture on the right. What do you
notice?
Try this at home with some other things like a spoon or fork. Do you observe any
different things?
( If you don’t have a clear glass, you can still see some interesting things. You might
want to use a larger container like a bathroom sink).
What ideas do you have about why things look different under water?
-refraction gradients, reflective index
Develop your understanding:
1. Explore the Intro screen to find some things that happen when light rays shine into water. Figure out
how to test what happens when the light rays come from underwater. Compare your ideas about why
things look different under water to how light rays appear to “bend.”.
both angles have different degree of refraction above and below water, approximately 32 below and 45 above,
different degree of intensity above and below
Explain your understanding:
2. Experiment in the Intro screen using the tools to observe what happens to light when it shines on water.
Use both the Ray and Wave models for light.
a. Write about how each tool helps investigate the behavior of light.
ray can be used to measure degrees of refraction, wave can be used to seen intensity
4/15/20 Loeblein https://phet.colorado.edu/en/contributions/view/5463 page1
